Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. PROTECT YOURSELF ON BAD AIR QUALITY DAYS, INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 662 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed …
Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. CURCUMIN FOR EXERCISE-RELATED MUSCLE PAIN, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 653 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, PH InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are …
Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.
*Intro Music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that Invite Health has to offer at, www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code podcast at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started. † [00:00:34]
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Amanda Williams MD, MPH: [00:00:40] When it comes to aging, there is a common concern that many people have, and that is they want to remain sharp, want your brain to be functioning, firing on all cylinders as I like to say, as we get older. We know that there’s a lot of things that we can do to help prevent the decline in cognitive function as we grow older, we can look at different techniques that certainly have been shown to be beneficial. We can certainly look at the foods that we are eating, and I want to talk a little bit about neuro hacking today, because this is something that has kind of gained a lot of momentum over the course of the past decade. And many individuals are really starting to dive in to this whole thought of what can I do to maintain brain health? So we’re going to talk about some of the different nutrients that can clearly be advantageous to stave off age related diminishment of brain function and of course, what we can be doing to maintain our cognitive reserves, so I am Dr. Amanda Williams, scientific director at InVite Health. And neuro hacking is also sometimes related to or called brain hack, and this is an attempt to optimize our brain function and enhance cognitive performance. So this can be undertaken with different goals in mind. But generally speaking, most people want to have a better firing brain and this might happen to younger folks who are in college and want to do better for overall academic performance, and they try different brain techniques to enhance their recall, for example. So any of the things that we can do to attempt to improve upon brain function and mental performance, we can kind of categorize as neuro hacking. And there’s much clinical research out there now that is zeroing in on hacking the brain and the dimensions of cognitive enhancement.† [00:02:48]
MENTAL FATIGUE, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 613>>LISTEN NOW!
[00:02:49] There was a fascinating research study that was conducted a couple of years ago that dove into this, looked at the dimensions of cognitive enhancement and the physical components to this, the behavioral components, the biochemical components to this, and this is where we can start to look at those lifestyle modifications, the healthy eating, the exercise, why more research is being done as to the brain connectivity when it comes to exercise, for example, we know that that helps to release those feel good neurotransmitters, that dopamine release, but there’s a lot of complex information that occurs within the brain. And we know there’s a lot of things that we can do that can disrupt that complexity, certainly poor diet, sedentary lifestyle can lead into all of this chronic inflammation. Excessive damage brought on due to free radicals as well as inflammation and glycation can all lead to problems with lowered cognitive function as we grow older. But we know that there’s a lot of different strategies out there that they are assessing to see how our brain is working and how we can improve that. How do we make it even faster that we don’t want to lose this because of the process of aging? And this is where this whole new side of science, this neuro hacking or brain hacking has come into play, looking at the different dimensions, the cognitive domain, looking at the availability of different actions that can help to enhance the way that the brain is working as we grow older and, you know, different nutrients that help to enhance that neural signaling, the release of those powerful neurotransmitters, and this is where we start to look at the different nutrients, including omega three fatty acids. We have to look at mental fatigue in the different regions of the brain that get impacted because of high stress and just feeling run down. We have to look at the learning and the memory components, the hippocampus, which plays a crucial role in learning and memory. So there’s all of these moving parts in different areas within the brain that we know can be enhanced or strengthened. It’s kind of like doing brain exercises, we’ve all probably heard that as you get older, doing crossword puzzles or word lines can be very helpful. And, you know, finding new, exciting hobbies where you’re learning new things. There’s many individuals who will go and take a course you know, maybe they already have their degrees, already worked a full career, but they want to stay sharp. So they’ll go and take you know, college class and learn something new. So we know that these things have existed for a long time, but to focus on nutritional neuro hacking or brain hacking, this is this new area of scientific research that really is quite progressive in terms of enhancing your brain function and the utilization of different nutrients to help us get over that feeling tired, you know, the utilization of things like Rhodiola, where we have a lot of mental fatigue and problems with focus. So the use of inositiol, and ginkgo biloba can be very, very beneficial. How nutrients such as Blueberry Extract, those powerful purple anthocyanins can be very helpful when it comes to learning and memory. So we look at focus tired, memory, stress, all of these. And we say, well, what nutrients can we add in to our daily routine? We start to turn towards things outside of our diet, and if we eat a Mediterranean Diet where we are incorporating in those high fiber foods, those powerful vitamins and minerals provided from those wonderful fruits and vegetables, the seeds and the nuts, the healthy fats that help to protect the brain as we get older, to maintain that brain volume. Well, we can also look at different nutrients,such as acetyl-L-carnitine, so we have our alpha Lipoic acid combined with our Alcar, so Alcar with ALA, and we know that this is important for cellular fat metabolism as well as for energy production with inside of the cell within the mitochondria itself, we can see that those folks who have utilized, Alcar, acetyl-L-carnitine get a significant improvement on mental fatigue. So maybe they said, yeah, I just don’t feel as sharp, my brain feels kind of tired. They start to utilize Alcar, and they say, wow, you know, I feel like I have more energy, I feel like I’m more focused.† [00:07:48]
[00:07:49] We can clearly look at the addition of a formulation such as mind synergy or the cerebral care formulation and the powerful blend of those nutrients to enhance neuronal connectivity. The use of Phosphatidylserine and Phosphatidylcholine, these key fats that help to maintain the structure of your brain cells as you get older. And think about all the stress that we throw at our brain throughout our life. So we want to be able to stay focused, stay sharp, create new memories, maintain old memories. We have to take care of our brain and we do this through the action of neuro hacking, we think about the exercise that we’re going to do the next day and how that’s going to help reduce our stress level and release those powerful neurotransmitters, those feel good hormones that get released. We look at the incorporation of carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Oftentimes we think of them in the setting of eye health, but we definitely can see how these two powerful carotenoids do so much for our brain tissue and when taking them together can help to lower the amount of inflammation in the brain, just those two nutrients, those two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, they make up about 75% of the carotenoids found within the brain. So it would be incredibly advantageous to be taking a formulation that contains lutein and zeaxanthin.†[00:09:24]
[00:09:26] The scientific research on different nutrients such as Curcumin, for example shown to have very powerful cognitive benefits. The study that was conducted in men and women between the ages of 45 years old and 74 years old. And they found that when they were taking curcumin on a daily basis for 12 weeks, they started to have it improved working memory, decreased fatigue in the brain. Ginkgo biloba, which really helps to enhance the proper blood flow and oxygenation to our brain. These are all key ways that we can practice healthy neuro hacking. The incorporation of just our basic vitamins and minerals can offer a significant amount of support, along with omega three fatty acids. Oftentimes we think about fish oil, we’re thinking in that setting of cardiovascular support. But we know that those omega three fatty acids are helping the brain remain nice and full, which is why we have so many formulations that are geared towards optimizing those neuronal connections and supporting and maintaining the cellular function in chemical pathways and enzymatic pathways in the brain, all of which have been studied and shown to be highly effective. So I oftentimes will partner up that cerebral care formulation, which contains acetyl l-carnitine along with inositol, inositol is very powerful way to yield a positive cell to cell communication pathway in the brain. So for those who do have a hectic job or a hectic lifestyle and you feel mentally drained, incorporating in one scoop of that cerebral care each day along with mind synergy, can pack a punch when it comes to that brain hacking. So we can learn more, so we can remember more so we have better stress resilience. So when we are stressed out at work, maybe you’re in a traffic jam and you’re stressed out that the brain can respond better to that, so you don’t end up with mental fatigue we have to zero in on those nutrients that help to support neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new connections and to strengthen itself, we know that those key phospholipids, that phosphatidylcholine,the Phosphatidylserine do a wonderful job when it comes to allowing the brain to have better neuroplasticity. At the end of the day, we want to enhance our brain’s metabolic function, we want to enhance our critical thinking, support a better mood response, increase our focus. And of course reduce the amount of mental stress and brain fog that we have in order to have the ability to age in a more graceful way. So as we continue to watch this new progressive research field of hacking the brain or neuro hacking, it will be very interesting to see how many more components we start to find, that affect the biochemical pathways, the physical pathway, as well as the behavioral pathway. But for now, what we do know is that we can eat healthy foods through the adherence of a Mediterranean diet. We can help to support our body stress response through having daily physical activity, and we can incorporate in these powerful brain boosting nutrients such as the cerebral care formulation and the Mind Synergy, as well as looking at formulations such as the Alcar with ALA. So stick around on this topic because there is more to come, that is for sure. But I do want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting Invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health. And we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.†[00:09:26]
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Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. LOWERING THE RISK OF CARDIAC ARREST, PART 2- INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 616 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro:[00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast where our …
Did you know that if you are having back and neck pain there are a few steps you can take to help improve the discomfort. Learn more about diet changes and supplements that can help relieve the back and neck pain you are experiencing today!
lupus
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH:
[00:00:40] When it comes to our immune system, sometimes things can go haywire, and today I want to talk about a autoimmune condition that commonly affects women. So 9 out of 10 people who are diagnosed with lupus are women, and we know that just according to statistics, we recognize that there’s roughly about one and a half million Americans who have a form of lupus. Certainly, men can be impacted by this. Children, teenagers. But for the most part, we find that a good 90% are going to be women. Between usually the ages of 20 and 40 is when the initial diagnosis occurs with lupus. So I want to talk a little bit about what exactly lupus is and what you can be doing if you yourself have been diagnosed with this, or if you happen to have a friend, a family member, a coworker who has been diagnosed with lupus.† [00:01:43]
[00:01:43] So I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH, Scientific Director here at InViteⓇ Health and lupus is a incredibly detrimental systemic disease. Whenever our immune system decides that it’s going to rear its ugly head and create havoc for us, that is a big problem. And there are so many different autoimmune conditions. You can look at things such as lupus, we can look at rheumatoid arthritis, we can look at diabetes. We know that there are many different ways to which our immune system can go from being a very protective thing in our, in our body to something that can be very destructive.† [00:02:30]
[00:02:31] Now we know that lupus has a common driving force, and that is inflammation. Now when you look at lupus, this is… We usually just shorten it to lupus, but we’re talking about systemic lupus erythematosus and SLE. Now we know that when it comes to SLE, hence just lupus, we’re dealing generally with multiple areas in the body. So the skin, kidneys, heart, the entire cardiovascular system, the nervous system, connective tissue, the skeletal muscular system, as well as other areas that can be impacted because of the significant inflammation that occurs. So when people have lupus, oftentimes the way that they present and many of the complications is that there are multiple organ systems that have been impacted by this. So this puts someone with lupus at a higher risk of having a heart attack, having diabetes, having chronic kidney disease, bone loss, osteoporosis, as well as different blood disorders.† [00:03:44]
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[00:03:46] We can see that there are certain areas in the country to which lupus diagnosis can be at a higher rate. So we know that there is a Vitamin D connection to lupus. So you’re going to see higher rates of lupus being diagnosed throughout the Midwest, as well as the Northeast than you do in other parts of the country, including the the west coast of the country, as well as the Southeast. So we know that Vitamin D, which remember, Vitamin D is critical to our immune system. We know that Vitamin D is definitely playing a significant role. We recognize that not only is it geographically driven, but it is also very much so race driven. And we are going to see higher rates of lupus in those who are African-American, Asian-American, Native American as well as Latina women. You see this in a much greater rate, the incidence in these women, much more than you do in Caucasians. This is an area where I think it’s commonly overlooked as a public health issue, and there are so many things that should be done and can be done to improve upon the health outcomes for anyone who is diagnosed with lupus and many of the signs and symptoms of lupus can vary from one person to the next.† [00:05:18]
[00:05:19] Now, the actual diagnosis is going to come down to serum blood levels of those autoantibodies. So looking at the antibodies in the blood. But we know that sometimes people or people present with just really extreme fatigue. They may have painful, swollen joints, muscle pain. Many times people know the famous butterfly rash, but it is a rash across the cheeks. Now, that doesn’t mean that every person who has lupus will develop that because there are different types of lupus and the different systems or organs to which lupus attacks can vary from one person to the next. For some people, they can experience it with pain in their chest when breathing. So there’s many different ways. Headaches is another one that sometimes people will present with, you know, swollen joints and headaches, and it’s like what is actually happening? And then they do the serum tests and then they can see, yes, indeed, this is a case of lupus.† [00:06:27]
[00:06:28] Now, conventional treatment for lupus is very… It can be very beneficial, but it can also come with a whole host of different side effects. So many of the anti-malarial drugs, which are antiparasitic drugs, are oftentimes prescribed to those who have lupus. Now, those come with a whole host of different side effects, including significant damage that can occur within the liver. We can definitely look at the overuse of anti-inflammatory drugs, the NSAIDs, so chronic use of NSAIDs in someone who has lupus can lead to damaging effects once again when it comes to the health of the kidneys, as well as the liver, just depending upon which NSAID someone is using.† [00:07:19]
[00:07:20] So what can be beneficial in terms of what someone with lupus can do? We know that looking at the diet, making sure that we’re not adding insult to injury by having a pro-inflammatory diet foods that are going to drive up even more inflammation, so you want to have an anti-inflammatory diet. Fruits and vegetables. High antioxidant foods. Healthy fats. Things that are going to help to lower your inflammatory burden. Understanding how much stress plays a role into this. Remember, stress will drive inflammation as well. So management of stress, whether this is, you know, finding ways to do meditation or yoga or exercise, all of these make a big difference.† [00:08:08]
[00:08:10] And then we have to look at different natural interventions. Knowing that Vitamin D is directly linked to this… If you look at people who have lupus and you test their serum Vitamin D levels, you are likely to find significant insufficiency and even deficient Vitamin D levels. But we can also look at how Vitamin E, you know, inadequate Vitamin E intake can be another driving factor for this inflammation that drives up in the system. We can look at how omega-3s, so by incorporating in fish oil or krill oil, how beneficial this can be for easing inflammation. Of course, we can look at hormonal pathways, and they’ve been able to show… There’s a very important adrenal hormone known as DHEA, and low levels of DHEA have been observed in patients who have lupus, as well as other inflammatory diseases. So oftentimes you will find doctors who will prescribe DHEA to help to improve upon the health of those who have these inflammatory autoimmune conditions.† [00:09:27]
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[00:09:28] So lupus itself, we know it’s a systemic autoimmune disease driven by inflammation, so the immune system is attacking tissues in the body. We know that when it comes to which system is going to be affected most, this is going to vary from one person to the next. We know that there are different types of lupus. You have SLE, which is systemic lupus, meaning that this is affecting multiple systems in the body. You have discoid lupus. Now this is… Generally speaking, discoid lupus is only affecting the skin. Then you have drug-induced lupus. So this is when you were on a particular medication that then triggers an autoimmune response. There are different drugs that are frequently associated with creating this drug-induced lupus. So this can be many of the cardiovascular drugs antiarrhythmic drugs, hydralazine, which is a blood pressure lowering drug. So we can see how it is that lupus can present in different ways for different people.† [00:10:42]
[00:10:43] But at the end of the day, what we need to do is make sure that we are doing everything in our power to lower that inflammatory burden in the system. So we want to make sure that when it comes to the dietary intake that you are adhering to an anti-inflammatory diet so that Mediterranean diet really comes into play. We know that we don’t want to have to continuously turn to the anti-malarial drugs and the high dose NSAIDs in order to try to regulate this. So we want to try and help our immune system out ourselves by giving the immune system adequate nutrients, key vitamins and minerals. Those omega-3 fatty acids that we know are so key. So Vitamin D is going to be the number one thing that you look at. We know that when it comes to lupus, deficiency of Vitamin D is going to be incredibly high. And if someone with lupus doesn’t have Vitamin D deficiency, it’s pretty much guarantee that they will have insufficiency, meaning low levels, but not to the level of complete deficiency. So having your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level tested is incredibly important so that you’re supplementing with the right amount of Vitamin D every day to get you back into a healthy range to once again help to regulate the immune system response. Remember, when you’re taking Vitamin D, it’s always advantageous to take magnesium to help with that proper absorption. We want to incorporate in our fish oil or krill oil, or if you want to use the vegetarian option, using flaxseed. I always encourage anyone who has been diagnosed with lupus to incorporate Vitamin E. We know that Vitamin E certainly plays a essential role in terms of stabilizing cellular membranes. So we want to make sure that those immune cells have that support, and we know that Vitamin E certainly can block that autoimmune attack just through that action of stabilizing the cell membrane. They’ve done studies where they’ve shown how Vitamin D supplementation can actually reduce the level of autoantibodies in lupus patients.† [00:13:22]
[00:13:23] We have to look at other herbal extracts. There have been many studies done with curcumin and understanding that the bioactive components those curcuminoids can do a wonderful job in terms of easing that inflammation through targeting and suppressing or lowering different cytokines that are directly linked with lupus. So looking at things like different interleukins and tumor necrosis factor alpha. We can look at the clinical trials where they’ve given curcumin extract to patients with lupus, and they can start to see an improvement across all different markers, including those who have significant impact to their kidneys. Remember, lupus is going to attack multiple organ systems. When it attacks the kidneys and creates kidney disease because of lupus, so you get nephritis, so inflammation within the kidney, they can see how it is that that curcumin can help to stabilize that kidney function. So a lot of different things that we can be looking at. We can look at that hormonal component. And if your DHEA levels are low, then looking at supplementation with DHEA can help to create that balance once again within that adrenal stress response, but at the same time helping to heighten the body’s immune system, so it’s not going into this self-destructive mode. So lupus is something that you definitely want to make sure that if you know someone, if you, you yourself have lupus, that you take action in terms of diet, exercise and proper supplementation to have a better management of this autoimmune condition.† [00:15:21]
[00:15:22] So that’s all that I have for you for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Now do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:15:22]
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